1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an assembly comprising a substrate embodied from an electrically insulating material, an SMD component, which has lateral contact surfaces, and a stamped lead frame part embodied from metal, which stamped lead frame part is fastened to the substrate and is used to establish electrical connections between the lateral contact surfaces of the SMD component and further functional elements of the assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
SMD components (SMD: surface mounted device) differ from wired electronic components in that they are compact and it is possible to fit them in a simple manner. They are attached to circuit boards or ceramic substrates and soldered to the conductor tracks on the circuit boards. The conductor tracks are then connected to further electrical connections, in particular by way of connection cables or connection wires. In the event that only a few SMD components are required for a particular assembly, this type of mounting is extremely labor-intensive and expensive and it requires a large amount of installation space. EMC-filters for improving the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of direct current electric motors are one example. In the case of applications of this type, it is extremely labor-intensive to establish a contact between the conductor tracks of the circuit board and/or a ceramic substrate and further current-carrying components and a lot of space is required in regions in which very little installation space is available.
It is known from the US patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,903,920 B1 to protect an SMD ceramic condenser from mechanical loadings, in that said condenser is fastened to a circuit board with metal sockets. The sockets are embodied from copper strips that are curved in the shape of a U and one end thereof is soldered to the lateral contact surfaces of the SMD ceramic condenser.
This connection is made prior to the condenser being mounted on a circuit board. The free ends of the sockets are subsequently soldered to the conductor tracks on the circuit board.
A holder for an EMC filter is known from the publication GB 2 416 928 A. The EMC filter comprises an arrangement of ceramic condensers in an SMD housing having four lateral contact surfaces. The holder comprises a receiving device for the filter, said receiving device being surrounded by four walls. A spring clamp is placed on each of the walls surrounding the receiving device. One end of the spring clamp contacts the lateral contact surfaces of the filter, which end lies inside the receiving device. The outer lying ends are connected by way of further contact sites.
It is also known to connect SMD ceramic condensers without a separate circuit board or a ceramic substrate directly to a so-called lead frame, which is a stamped lead frame part embodied from metal. In particular, it is possible to solder the condensers directly to the lead frame. This connecting technique causes high mechanical loadings on the ceramic condenser and these loadings can cause damage or destruction of the condensers as a result of different coefficients of thermal expansion particularly in the case of simultaneous temperature fluctuations in an operating temperature range for example from −50° C. to +160° C.